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Huge News Regarding auDA

Just received news that the Federal Government has announced a review into auDA. Read the press release from Senator The Hon Mitch Fyfield. Click on the link at the bottom of the story.

A review of auDA’s governance arrangements and an assessment of the terms of endorsement will examine whether Australia’s top-level domain, .au, is being managed consistent with Government and community expectations. It is anticipated that the review would be finalised in early 2018.

Looks like complaints have finally been acknowledged. The Government have been left with little choice. Maybe the last straw was Nicole Murdoch's letter of complaint to the Minister about being disenfranchised as an auDA member.

Looks like complaints have finally been acknowledged. The Government have been left with little choice. Maybe the last straw was Nicole Murdoch's letter of complaint to the Minister about being disenfranchised as an auDA member.

Let's hope it is not a whitewash.

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No use trying a whitewash...The whole Liberal Government could fall on this issue.

I have it on very good authority at least 2 Class Action Law Firms and Litigation Lenders will look into this, and the background to the process to date, potential "conflicts of interest", domain name wholesale pricing, contracts etc.
2.1 million individual registrants of over 3 million existing .au names... do the numbers. People who paid auDA a lot of money for their .com.au names..

How about all of the people buying names on the drop auctions each day not fully aware of their eligibility for the proposed competing .au extension? via they been fully informed their investment may be at risk?...
Damage has already been done to existing .au registrants by the actions of some...There is a price to pay.
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It was only a matter of time of time before the government intervened. AUDA had plenty of warning to clean up its act and didn't. Let's hope they look very throughly at the .AU decision, the withholding of information from members, the way the board is structured, director and staff hiring/firing decisions.

My overall feeling is AUDA is not easily fixed but let's see. AUDA is lucky they didn't just shut the place down and set up a new body, that is what I thought would happen one day.

Immediate spin from AUDA (Boardman?). AUDA "welcomes" the review. The last time they said they "welcomed" something was when the SGM was launched, they then sent in a team to lawyers to try and squash it!

The only worry I have is that this is some "machiavellian plot" cooked up by some at auDA in order to get rid of pesky members.

I'm being very serious here. I would not put it past some of them - they were very stung by the SGM.

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Very hard to predict. The demand/supply model must go. I personally think there should be one membership class. The organisation needs a complete reset also.

I'd imagine submissions the government receives won't be pretty once you factor in demand/supply members (mostly unhappy with leadership on both sides of the fence), general public (those who know about it unhappy about .au), former staff. I don't believe there will be any glowing endorsements.

That is exactly it. AUDA doesn't existing to please supply or demand interests, it is supposed to be governed in the public interest. That has not happened due to stacking of the board and AUDA unwillingness to do anything about it over a very long period of time..

Let's start some transparency and accountability relating to the wholesale registry contracts and how they have been managed over the years by auDA... the promised 2008 wholesale registry .au price drop which has never occurred... we are talking massive money and how about the .au consumers rights and the rights of .au registrars and resellers to also see the promised and 2008 contracted wholesale .au price decrease auDA and Ausregistry even did media releases about themselves?

FOLLOW THE MONEY the auDA CEO Cameron Boardman told me..... Where do you want us to look?

Stop playing games with the .au namespace and your fake B.S. spin and cover ups or you may see many of your names in the stories since many decisions have been claimed by auDA board and auDA to be "UNANIMOUS"!
I suggest release the documents asap... No More Cover ups...Better now than in the Government investigation...They will have no problems covering themselves instead of you any longer!

Say goodbye to our membership organisation and say hello to a statutory creature.

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That's what is behind this in my opinion. It's as I wrote on Domainer:

On the other hand, the only worry I have is that this is some “Machiavellian plot” cooked up by some at auDA in order to get rid of pesky members. I’m being very serious here. I would not put it past some of them – they were very stung by the SGM. They were so peed off that the Corporations Act allowed as little as 16 members to call a S249D meeting that ultimately rolled a Chair.

auDA is broken, the Constitution has not been followed, .au registrants have been given the finger and ripped off for too long.. now auDA and some pulling strings behind it want to make even more $$ and do it again..

They had the chance to look at the CIRA membership model but the fact is they can run small numbers of "members". The whole thing has been stacked for years and everyone knows it... Meanwhile the existing 99 % of .au paying registrant consumers do not even know who auDA is or about any extra planned competing .au extension...... auDA and it appears some on the Board might like to keep people in the dark..

Every .au registrant should be provided information, properly informed and the right to join auDA FREE as members.. probably too late now for auDA.. they had the chance but stuffed it up it seems...

auDA is broken, the Constitution has not been followed, .au registrants have been given the finger and ripped off for too long.. now auDA and some pulling strings behind it want to make even more $$ and do it again..

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That is a fact. The membership structure is broken, the board is supply stacked. It cannot be fixed by members because no special resolution to give equal rights to all members would ever pass a special resolution.

The risk though is that the "new" AUDA will have the same people pulling the strings as the old, if that happens not much will change in terms of the organisations underlying problems.

That is a fact. The membership structure is broken, the board is supply stacked. It cannot be fixed by members because no special resolution to give equal rights to all members would ever pass a special resolution.

The risk though is that the "new" AUDA will have the same people pulling the strings as the old, if that happens not much will change in terms of the organisations underlying problems.

Department of Communications uses their infrastructure for
1. Secure wholesale Australian registry
2. .AU pricing input is taken to see how they can run it or not run it and at what cost
3. If the wholesale price goes down Supply Registars, Resellers and .au registrant consumers benefit
4. auDA Foundation is closed.... that's been very quiet hasn't it?
5. The $14 million auDA has in the bank is transferred to the DOC and/ or lower wholesale .au pricing. Wake up Registrars and Resellers where was your 2008 wholesale .au price drop as promised and promoted by Ausregistry and auDA in their media releases of 2009?
6. No foreign ownership allowed of the Australian Critical Infrastructure wholesale registry role which auDA subcontracted out.
7. Ombudsmen, oversight committees, some form of proper reporting people can access etc

Domain names and IP addresses
The domain name system (DNS) underpins the operation of the internet. The DNS is the global database that translates website names (such as www.communications.gov.au) into computer-readable internet protocol (IP) addresses.

The Governmental Advisory Committee advises ICANN on internet-related public policy— we represent the Australian Government, and advocate Australia’s interests, on this committee

The .au domain.au is Australia’s country code domain. On 17 October 2017 the Government announced a review of the management of the .au domain to ensure it remains fit for purpose in Australia’s digital landscape.

The Department will release a discussion paper shortly and the Government expects the review to be finalised in early 2018.